Boudoir photography uncovers body positivity

More Saskatchewan women are trading in their everyday attire for something a little sexier – and many are learning to appreciate and celebrate their bodies along the way.

“I felt beautiful, I felt alive, I felt young. It actually made me smile and feel really good inside,” said Veronica Wilgosh, who recently had a boudoir photo shoot with Jackie Larkin, a Regina-based photographer.

Photographer Larkin believes that more women are starting to appreciate their bodies. “I think there is more of an acceptance of that…to celebrate ourselves and put ourselves out there,” she said.

Larkin has been a professional photographer for eight years. She also shoots for businesses, families and weddings. When it comes to boudoir, her clients are mostly professional women aged 30 to 50 years old.

“I hit a milestone birthday, I was basically turning 50. Part of me just felt, you know, it would be nice to celebrate my age verses looking at it as a negative,” said Wilgosh.

Wilgosh enjoyed the session with Larkin. “It was easy, I felt very comfortable. It felt natural,” she said. “There was a comfort level with (Larkin).”

Wilgosh was very pleased with how her photos turned out. “I loved them actually,” she said. “To me it captured the true essence of what I was trying to achieve.”

Tamara Stettner is a stay-at-home-mom who also decided to do a boudoir session with photographer Crystal Dutka from Broadview, Sask.

“I did it for my husband, and a little bit for myself, too,” said Stettner.

Dutka says that the biggest challenge of her job is trying to make clients comfortable during the shoot.

“I’ll take a photo of them and I’ll show them the photo and say something like, ‘See? you look great, you don’t need to worry.’”

Stettner said she was nervous at first but soon settled in. “I definitely felt relaxed, I felt beautiful, I felt confident. But going into it, I did not feel that way,” she said. “Once I was there with Crystal and saw the atmosphere, I was so much at ease and I didn’t feel nervous anymore.”

When asked how her husband reacted to the photos, Stettner said, “My husband loved it. I think more he loved the idea that I was able to get in front of a camera and feel beautiful. When he saw the photos, he looked at me and said, ‘I told you, you are the most beautiful thing.’”

Crystal Dutka says that her clients are always happy to see the photos. “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that they didn’t realize they could look like

something they see in a magazine,” she said.

But when it comes to editing the photos, Dutka doesn’t believe in making major changes to clients’ bodies. For example, she wouldn’t change the size of someone’s waste or remove stretch marks. She would, however, edit out a pimple or other blemish that’s not regularly there.

“I think that women are beautiful, any shape, any size,” she said. “So why would I change them to be something that they are not when they are celebrating their own sexuality and their own self?”

Stettner said that the photo shoot helped her appreciate her body.

“I learnt that my body has changed... I just needed to learn to love the new me and love the way the new me looks. And I learned not to be shy and to be proud of the new body that I do have being a mom.”